Desert Rain
by Odeveca
Summary: Imprint Story. Benita was meant to bring hell to the Cullens, before the Volturi Guard killed them off, and return to her Mother's vampire army in Texas, instead she got a boy with a beautiful smile. DISCONTINUED.
1. Chapter 1

**THANK YOU FOR CLICKING ON THIS! Enjoy!  
**

 _ **o0o DESERT RAIN o0o**_

* * *

 **Benita: Sloth**  


Increased cranial pressure.

Pop.

No, Splat.

No, it's more intense. Brain between fingers, too complicated for feeling.

It is murder. Her first.

"Benita," the street shadow calls her out, finding her unsavory predicament, and bending his head full of dark hair to the tips of her bloody slime fingers, he is so much taller than her three feet height, and his open lips breath it in her children's fingers, "what have you done?"

 _What can she say?_

He examines the pieces of the man that remains, splattered on the piss alley ground, analyzes the situation like his books he reads in the dead of the night, and she quakes for what comes next. No doubt cold anger would spread over Ralph at her murderous behavior, her guardian had little patience with bloodlust, and she for once feels guilty for it.

He had told her the consequences of killing a human.

He would no longer allow her to hunt alone.

He would no longer love her.

He did none of the above, "Let me, mi Nita," he licked her red fingers clean of evidence, professional and thorough. He was helping her, hiding her mistake, and protecting her from herself, _once again._

" _Muchas gracias_ ," Benita is always thankful, very much, and yet she still feels the slipper jelly on her palms, tangy sweet in her nose, and it just makes her feel filthy in his golden eyes.

He recognized the face guilty face she would make, _too_ intelligent for one that appeared so young.

" _Vamanos_ , leave it there," he tells her and they fly fast down midnight cracked asphalt, the headless offerings rolling on the floor, and forgotten in a world of shifting shadows.

They race down piss stained alleys, crammed buildings looming overhead, cheap laundry flapping in the warm breeze, open windows meant to fight the heat, and to her the illuminated squares face off against the late black New Mexico night, rebellious and alive.

" _Adonde esta Mama_?"

"Not know Benita," he reminds her.

Despite the false light of the windows, she knows his face, " _si Ralph_ ," she says because there always seems to be more dark windows when they prowl. People are asleep in their rooms, and she yawns too. It is near her bedtime as Ralph escapes the city limits with her, yet it makes her wonder, her immortal neck craning to the sleep filled rooms,

 _who can find sleep in Hell?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Breaking Dawn: Prudence  
**

"Have you got a name out of her yet?"

"No, Carlisle, we are trying," said the vampire that had stared deeply into her eyes, the bronze haired and golden eyed teenager had not let her well enough alone, mirroring her blank facial expression, trying to get a read on her random thoughts, "she is still fighting me in her mind."

"I am not fighting," Benita held the chains around her hands, testing them, she could break them easily, but that would cause _him_ to return.

"She doesn't want Jasper here," the bronze vampire's scheming handsome features become troubled, "she is afraid of him," he said aloud, and she cursed in Spanish that would win her no favors, "and I am not surprised with the effect she had on him."

"I am not her," she repeated as if it would help her case, "I am different, I am a hybrid like your hybrid," Benita tried to stand, it had been seventeen hours since then, but she still had the strength enough to do that and refuse the cold mouthwatering food that no doubt would poison her into submission, "I want to leave now. Coming here was a mistake."

The Cullen leader looked at her, as if he could read her mind too, "What we can't understand is how you were invisible to us? How did we not see your intentions? Edward?"

Benita looked away.

"Carlisle, that's it," Edward's face lit up, "there was someone else here," said the mind-reader, "she had someone helping her, his name was Jeremy, and he left when I left this morning," he narrowed his eyes, "his gift was meant for me, for us all not to notice her."

Benita growled, "I want to leave!"

"We respect that Miss," the one named Carlisle spoke up, "but we cannot overlook your connections with Maria-"

"I am not her, I have nothing to do with her," she had to repeat, even if she was an mirror reflection of the Spanish warlord, and to their knowledge she was adopted by her, and not… they did not deserve the truth. That was hers.

"We are not here to hurt you," the bronze one said his arms opened, palms up in mock display of peace, he just wanted to know all her secrets, _no harm at all,_ "just open your mind, and we will have reason enough to not keep you here."

She gave them the same answer as before, "Go to Hell."

There was a collective sigh, "I will be back with more food," Carlisle said lifting the food she had not touched.

The bronze one caught his arm, "Renesmee? How is she?"

Carlisle must have meant the _pequina_ immortal Benita had seen on the way here, the barely year-old hybrid had bronze hair like her father, and big brown eyes that might have come from her human Mama.

"She is curious, Edward," Carlisle says, "she wants to meet her," that was impossible, they both knew it would never be safe enough for her to get close to shackled beast, too dangerous to play zoo, "but I will tell her you will see her soon."

Edward nodded his head, but there was sadness there when the door shut once again.

He was missing her.

A teenage father to an immortal child.

Benita could work with this, "Don't you miss her, talking to your daughter, it must be so hard," she let her dark eyes connect with his, making them softer, far more confident, "don't you want to take a break, and go see what she needs-"

"Her protection is my main priority," he rebuked her, his eyes narrowing, he could still read her mind, "and I trust you even less than when you first came."

"Then why would you tell me that? Why give up that you don't trust me?"

He shrugged, "honesty."

"Honesty is best policy," Benita said remembering Ralph tell her that, "oh Edward, the life of a hybrid is a hard one," she shook her head, looking through the only window in the attic, outside the grassy lawn seemed like heaven, and beyond the treeline whispered to her, beckoning, "the Volturi are going to eat you all alive."

He was quicker, "You don't know that."

"No, I don't know that," Benita agreed, looking through the attic window, at the faces of the assembling Cullen army, the ranks of ill-fitting vampires, all here for different purposes, all lacking faith, and back to the somber face of her captor, "but they are thinking it."


	3. Chapter 3

**Benita: Wrath  
**

 **(a year ago.)**

Scrub the skin raw.

That is what she tells herself, but her mind knows it will not wash the innocent blood this time, from her dearest lost love, "Fuck it!"

It still hurt. Seeing her face. Green eyes, addicted to her own sweet vanilla scent, desperate for her humanity, and above all her best friend. Lena. Dead before her time, twice dead before her time, and Benita does not know what will make it right. She remembers it clearly in her mind, traumatizing her still.

"I need to show you something," Lena had said, the Texas waitress, led the dangerous man, a gun strapped at his hip, loaded with bullets, "can I show you something," she had asked before it happened, so politely to the police officer.

Benita had come later, after the whole tragic scene, after Lena had got out of her car on some isolated highway baking in the summer sun, took the officer to her trunk, opened it, pulled out a rifle, and aimed anywhere, at the man, at the _montañas_ older than dirt, to the Palm Springs sky, and it would not have mattered.

She was shot six times.

"Stupid _pendeja_ ," Benita raged, catching her shot down body, and making quick work of her killer, "mi Lena," she had kissed her sweaty human head. The one she had kissed when she was born again, and now her blood would run cold, no, she could not let it happen again!

She was moving too much, "Let me save you dammit."

Lena did not want it, resisting her helping immortal arms against her weak human ones, "Let me go."

"Stop it _pendeja_ , stop fighting it," Lena's poor warm body went into death throws while Benita's useless arms tried to stop it from happening, "why pendeja? Why?"

There was no answer. She was too late.

Dead eyes was all she left behind.

"No, Lena, don't leave me, you promised, you promised you would try, for me, for us," and still she was another life lost to the sand, "why'd you leave me?"

Suicide by cop.

Lena had been smart, too smart that it had made her stupid with grief. A real martyr.

 _Fuck her_ , Benita should have thought, but instead she agonized every millisecond that she could have changed.

"Don't save them anymore," Ralph told her time and time again, sitting on a rusted and forgotten barrel, shaking his undead knees, his long brown braid over his sparkling shoulder, and flickering his unsteady eyes to the sun-hot sand dunes of Arizona, "you're killing yourself over nothing."

"Lena was something to me," Benita raised the stream's water to wash the killer's blood, wanting to rip the policeman's throat out over and over, "I changed her, I gave her life back. Why couldn't she just enjoy it?"

"Maybe she wanted to die," he smartly put it, raising his golden eyes to the sky, "come on we should get back."

When they got back to the army, her Mama was shouting orders to the practicing generals, spectators cheering while Juanita trained the newborns in their own pit, and here she was, Benita forever on the sidelines, throwing her baseball into the air, seeing how far it could go before it reached space, that was when the hybrid got her answer, "maybe she was just lost," she told herself, "maybe she was meant to die the first time around."

Ralph was still there, reading, "Probably," his gaze was thoughtful, "did she ever thank you?"

"No," Benita lifted her shirt, rubbing on the blood still caked down her breast, she should have cleaned it all off, she hated being wrong, "she never got the chance."

Ralph had the decency to look away, not really believing that, "Then who is the real _pendeja_?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Breaking Dawn: Fortitude**

Edward had finally left, but now the terrible warcry of a piano being abused rung in her sensitive ears, raining thunderous music, and she could not escape it. The haunting song only made her growing headache worse, "asshole," she whispered to the attic floorboard, hoping he would hear his new name, and stop trying to break her.

Her defenses went down when she caught a different scent. Floral, freshly cut lavender mixed with cinnamon rolls.

"You have not touched your food," the very feminine voice made her open her eyes, and she saw that it was Carlisle's mate, the caramel haired, soft and small curved woman that had yet to speak or touch her. She moved quietly and no doubt she had done this before.

"Won't you try the food?"

Benita did not answer.

"I will take that as a no."

Before the leader's mate left, Benita had something to tell her before she left, wait! "Tell your mate to stop bringing me food."

"But," the vampiress' lip trembled for a moment, a hidden tick as she held the door open, "do you not like it?"

The nerve of this woman, what the hell did she mean, "Not like it?"

"Would you prefer something else?

She had to be joking, Benita was beginning to see that she actually believed her words, " _Senora, por favor,_ I am very gracious with your hospitality, but I will never eat your food, or whatever you bring me."

"I see, I mean I know," she must have known, the way mate's hands held the still full plate, and how her thumb played with the stale steak, "it has been days since you fed," her eyes became bigger like the cartoon characters she used to watch as kids, as if she had finally noticed something important, "how long can you go without-"

"I have gone longer, I will be fine," she hoped to pacify the woman, but what Benita had not expanded was that she had always had blood in her system.

A college grad that was walking late in the night to his car, a woman with her earphones tanning on a California beach, and a group of huddled homeless under the rat-infested and trash decay of an overpass.

Blood was blood, "if you want to help me," Benita licked her dry lips, "you can bring me a warm body," that seemed to make her eyes even bigger, cartoon-like, "but if that is too hard, it's fine."

Carlisle's mate left her then, no luck with her request.

The silence kept saying it… _Esta bien, esta bien_ , _yeah right_ , at that moment Benita's stomach began to gurgle and growl like a chainsaw looking for wood, "fuck."

"I brought some more," it was Edward with another plate of untouchable food, and if she would have been paying attention she would have noticed that the piano ended with his return, and as she has suspected, the melodious torture had in fact been him.

"You're an asshole, you are making me weaker," that had to be his plan, "you are just trying to get into my head."

"If you let me in," he set the food down near her feet, "then this will all run more smoothly, all this can be preventable, you are the one that's making it harder for yourself, " he tempted her and sat in the chair he used for his time with her. Twirling in it like a bored little child, and that sent her over the edge, "just give in."

She yells, frustrated beyond decency, " _Pendejo_ fucker, I will never listen to you!"

The _Grito de Dolores_ came with the shattering of the glass plate, and spray of food that lands in his wild hair, that is enough to break whatever forced peace there was, he scowls picking at the syrup in his destroyed hair, and she hides the smile on her lips with her scarred knuckles.

Edward takes it very well, flicking off food, cleaning the first of many messes, and then his arms cross over his unmoving chest, "I can wait forever remember."

She hates him more for it, "Only until the Volturi get here," Benita smartly put it, wiping her fingers on her less than pleasant shirt, _or_ _when Maria comes with her own army,_ "you are going to be dead, and I am going to get away."

He had the nerve to smirk, "we will see."


	5. Chapter 5

**Benita: Greed  
**

 **(6 months ago.)**

Ralph and Maria were off with training the new recruits, cleaning the army of the weak, and replenishing with the new, and so Benita was free to play in the world of men.

At the moment, she was sitting on a bench, pretending to read a magazine of enviously tall models with sticks for bodies, while the cloud-filled winter day let her skin remain mocha pale instead of the faint glitter.

"What are you doing Benita," a man in sunglasses found her watching a group of rowdy men, "ah, you are watching, I remember when I did that, what a waste of time," he pulled his hood higher over his head with his gloved hand, not an inch of skin showing in case the Mexican sun came out, "you know you can never be in that world anymore."

Benita did not think that way, "I am watching out for the little girl," the Zacatecas men were obviously intoxicated, and something told her to wait, watch the little lonely girl cross their path, and hope, pray that this time she would not need to intercede.

"Are they going to-"

"Shh-"

The little girl made it to her home, shutting the iron door behind her, and padding deeper into the safety where her mother was waiting to feed her _huevos rancheros,_ or that was the smell Benita caught wafting through her open window.

" _Gracias a Dios_ ," nothing happened, no harm, no foul, until Santiago came closer to her, leaving the touch of his unwanted hand on her shoulder, and squeezing hard, his Castellano accent in her ear, "them, go get them," he pointed the same men out.

"Why? They did nothing wrong," she can see their family members sitting in the porch behind them. They laugh like plates breaking, "we should leave them be, they can't hurt us."

"They are so human, so weak," he agrees like it makes them more desirable, "make them stronger Benita."

"They are already strong."

"You know what I mean."

She really looks at them. Loud and proud, very human men, and yet they could grow to be husbands, lovers, and fathers. They could have been those things or none at all. Benita tells him this, and yet Santiago of the Volturi still wants her to kill them.

"Because Maria wants them," and it is that simple.

Benita does as she is told.

Like a good _soldado_. She brings them in to be turned by her Mama. Blood red eyes open. Intoxicated for _sangre_ , and nothing else. _Sangre_. Fight. _Sangre_. Kill. Win.

A year passes, like clockwork the year still passes, and she helps old ones be put down like limping pitbulls after a dog-fight gone wrong.

"I don't want to die," says one of them, the newborn had a daughter once, still living her life somewhere, the girl was younger than her, and he knows it doesn't matter, because he is too weak to fight in the battles. She knows that, Maria does, and now so does he. The newborn that will never be that person again.

"You are already dead," Benita tries to console him, her patient hand on his shaking head, and her tongue flicking the air for his retaliation.

"I don't- I don't," he falls to his knees, not fighting back, not spitting venom, and utterly hopeless. These are the worst ones.

"My name is Miguel," he tries to make her understand, "my family came from Guadalajara-" _whack, rip, collect, burn_ , Santiago got to him first, he shreds the rest of what is left, throwing it into the flames, a sickly sweet scent permeates the air, and it is finished.

"You're getting weak Benita," the too ancient immortal brushes by her, bringing in the next to be put down, and leaving the victim in her less than capable hands.

The next one was an elderly woman, and Benita dies a little when she has to tear her head from her short shoulders. The next one she had to chose herself, and it is a girl that looks her age, but she is much younger. Benita guesses it is Santiago's personal joke.

 _Miguel from Guadalajara. Sophia Caldera, a grandmother at the wrong place._ _The last, was a girl without not given a chance to say her name._

Time would forget her, the girl that time forgot, and the rest would soon be gone too when Benita was no longer living. Other names to add to her list of forgotten. She knows these men, women, children from cradle to grave. Same in Texas, Nevada, Sonora, even Monterrey, it's all the the same everywhere. Jump this side or that of the invisible border, jumping over _las vacas de sangre_ , and not a damn soul is safe.


	6. Chapter 6

**Breaking Dawn: Temperance**

In her hands is the blood bag that had been brought the day before. A Positive, squishy crimson, and she reads the contents, "volunteer donor?"

"It will be wasted on you," is Edward's smart reply, he has been rather stiff after her sixth plate she smashed into the wall, but he is liking how her resolve is failing, he smirks sometimes, as if he knows some joke she will never understand.

He tips his head, "Oh you will understand it, you just might not like it."

"Even better," Benita bites back, "don't smile at me."

He stops smiling, "just drink your blood."

"I will," _pinche cabron_ , _he could suck on his own_ -

"And stop thinking so loud, or I will take it away."

Benita tucked the blood bag closer to her chest, "Ok, fine."

She looks at the offering like original sin. It is biblical for vampires to want, want, and want more. She wants this blood bag, even if it is not the best choice. The bag is not O Negative, it's not even warmed up, an overdue goodie bag that she once would have thrown away in disgust, and now she is opening it, lifting it to her nose, smelling, because the comfort of the nickel tang is stronger than any notion of loyalty.

Alone, she had seriously thought of tearing into it, swallowing in greedy gulps, until they had brought him to her, _like a warm body sacrificed at the altar,_ would she open her mouth and accept the body presented to her?

 _He's yummy_ , Edward rolled his eyes at Benita's internal monologue.

Benita could care less, whatever this was, human plaything or food, sometimes she forgot to tell the difference, _whoops_ , she was ready to feed.

Like a television watching toddler Benita suckled on the lesser of two evils, like it was a go-gurt instead of a bag of blood, and stared at him with big eyes, "So they brought you blood? That's nice I guess. Bella was saying that Edward was trying to starve you out," he found it funny, she pretended to find it funny too, "well Nessie can still eat food, even if she does throw her tantrums," the man smiled wider than before at the mention of the other female hybrid, "but you don't touch it so… the blood must help you more."

Words meant nothing right now.

Benita was more focused on the man's jugular. The breathing, heart-pumping, and utterly warm muffin before her had no idea what his presence did to her. She had finished the blood bag, it went down too fast, and now she wanted the real thing.

"Can she speak Edward," the warm blood bag asks, "I mean, she just keeps staring at us, does she even understand English," the delectable asked of the captor.

"She is just very hungry," was Edward's playful answer, and she hummed at the need she felt just now. She was wondering why the Cullens had brought her a warm body, as a peace prize, as a way to torture her more into submission… but they were right, this was going to be her tipping point. No doubt.

"Jacob Black," he had said was his name, and her nose flared at the blood that sung to her, the skin that would feel delicious under her trembling hands, and how it would feel when her teeth tore into his neck.

"Okay? Are you sure? Is she always this… weird," Jacob leaned forward in his seat, curious, "it's like I can't get a good read on her, she doesn't look like the newborns we fought, nothing like Victoria," Benita shivered at the warmth exhaled from his mouth, he would be delicious.

Edward laughed aloud, "I don't doubt it. Renesmee is going to have some competition."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Benita would show him what it meant, "Jacob," the name could have been any, she would have found is just as perfect, "why don't you get closer to me, I am so tired, so weak."

He was no longer leaning forward, "um, what are you doing?"

Benita tucked her chained hands between her legs, leaning forward, and hoping her cleavage looked as good as it did before her imprisonment, "I feel so cold here. The vampires are mean to me, you look like a nice guy. _Muy suave_."

The man's face blushed making his skin pulse with life, it made it even harder not to jump him there and then, "Uh no, now way," Jacob lifted his hands, he was getting the idea now, "did you give her any ideas Edward?"

"Not in the way you might think," Edward laughed at them both, "but I am sure my daughter would not mind."

"Not in a million years!"

Benita pouted, it was very rare for people not to be swayed by her, especially mortals, if only she did not have these cuffs digging into her wrists, "Jacob," she pleaded, "please."

That was when the door opened, "hey Jake, Leah said that Sue called, we should start heading back, " said the younger version of Jacob, gangly, and all smile, "also Nessie was wondering where you put the remote. She wants to watch that show you guys watch."

"Not now Seth," Jake looked back at him, and so did Benita.

It took a moment for this Seth to look at her, and when he did the most peculiar thing happened. Benita saw that his eyes were not just dark, but chocolate brown, golden tinges, and his skin was not just russett, but the warmest reddish-orange like the morning sun leaking into the mists below it, or more brown, earth, like the clay she once found in a mountain range, she could smell the desert rain and she took a deep breath of it, holding her aching chest. It was hard to look away.

"Seth no!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Benita: Envy**

 **(3 months ago.)**

The Witching Hour, sounds scary.

Scarier than the Vampire Hour, and so it is at that time that a section of the Rio Grande is emptied of life, and wading in the calm black currants are three bodies. Three vampires wading in the cool and shallow waters that will outlast them all.

" _Dejame tocar tu cuerpo_ ," the woman commands and Santiago leans back against the reeds, letting the woman touch him, and bathe the filth of war from him.

Benita watches.

Maria, Santiago, and her.

Los _tres jefes_ , the three bosses, even if everyone knows there is only one, "Maria," Santiago catches her attention, holding her naked hand in his own, "we have a rat."

Nothing good ever came of conversations that started with traitors, and Benita swam backwards a bit, letting her hair submerge, and pretending that it did not distress her.

Maria seemed to be pleasured by it, " _mhm, esta Estaban, mi amor_ ," she guessed, " _y Juanita_?"

"No, not them, closer to home," his ancient crimson eyes latched upon Benita like she was shit under his combat shoes he liked to wear.

"You can't mean Benita," Maria appraised her kindly, slapping river water at her second because she knew them better than they knew themselves, "why can't you leave her alone, she has proven enough to me," the _jefe of the jefes_ twirls her coy finger around his bare dark nipple, "tell me who you really believe it is?"

Santiago's eyes still latched onto Benita again, and she covered her bare chest in retaliation, not liking his insufferable attention. She hated doing this. She was forced to be naked, it was her mother's tradition, something from her human years, that they did not fear nakedness, and what it used to mean in her times. Naked and humbled to one another. That is how Maria has always liked it.

Santiago played along too, "You need to watch out, he has been speaking to your enemies. Telling them things they want to hear, about how to take your lands south of Monterrey."

Maria was no longer smiling, "A he?"

Santiago looks Benita dead in the eye, "Ralph, it's Ralph," is his answer and that is when Benita stands, her feet touching the mushy bottom of the depleted river, but she still covers her modesty, no longer comfortable in the situation, it was a perverts' game he was playing.

"That's a lie, he is lying Maria," Benita told her, she had to see that too.

"I heard him with my own ears," Santiago rebuked her, "how could _you_ possibly know?"

Because she trusted Ralph, "You leave him out of this, he did nothing to you, stop making lies about him," Benita demands of the Volturi _mafioso_ and Maria's mate, even if it is not her place, because she has only one friend in this world, Ralph was her person, and she would be damned to all hell's gates if her comrade was killed by this, " _machismo pendejo_."

Just as quickly Santiago is on her, throwing, pinning and growling her into the banks of the shore where he threw her. A gladiator against a _chaparrita_. He is bigger, powerful, experienced, and all that can be taken away, but Maria's wary eyes come over his shoulder, reminding, "be careful, Santiago. You have to be gentle with her," like she is baby compared to them. Benita might as well be.

Santiago is not gentle, "I own this _cabrona_ , I own you all," her mate yells, enforcing his words with a hand around Benita's small throat, and he lifts and smashes her head back into the ground, it makes a terrible crack sound.

"Santiago!"

The damage is done, the hit is hard enough to shake the land, and give Benita a raging and light-spazzing headache. Benita yowls in turn, baring her teeth at the crazy vampire.

"Santiago! Let her go!"

"Get off me," he yells at Maria, pulling his elbow back with a swift blow and cracks her face in the process, she screams, "ah!"

The crack of vampire bone makes Santiago stop, and they both stare at their Maria's now wounded face. He had laid a hand on the _jefe de jefes_. Benita was beyond shocked, she was thrilled, this is what she had been waiting for. He was going to get it, lawbreakers always got it.

"I told you to stop," Maria holds her face in place as the Volturi spy and she, the Southern army leader look at one another, _daring_ , Maria drops it, "get out of my sight, I cannot look at you," and like that Santiago runs away, racing down the river's coast like the devil is behind him, and leaving the female vampires to watch his warpath.

"You let him get away?"

That is not even the least of it, "Do not upset him," Maria gives her advice when they are alone, and Benita's happiness for revenge ebbs to a small resolution of disappointment. Her mother had let him go. He was the big fish in their small pond. A big fish from Italy that would swallow them all. Maria would regret it, but Benita hoped she was there to see the day. To save her from herself.

Instead of arguing, Benita is watching the way her mother massages her face and the back of her head until the fractures from Santiago are gone, if only her half-vampire body could heal so quickly, "he can hurt you worse when I am not here."

They are both putting on her clothes, Maria traces the birthmark on her hip, and the younger is in the mood to never do this again, "He should never have hurt you either, you are the leader, not the Volturi, they don't own us, they should always fear us," Benita corrects her rubbing her own pain from Santiago, "we grow bigger every day, one day we will have numbers they could not dream of. We could overthrow them."

Maria shakes it off, her smile is too big, it is frightening, "You need to be more careful Benita, with what you say."

"It's only us, I wish it was only us all the time," Benita tells Maria.

She doesn't comment on this, "we can't let him do that to you, I am sorry," she comes close, lifting her palm and then her mouth to Benita's mouth, a kiss of some promise she made long ago, "huh, he got you good _, cabron_ , I will not let him touch you," Maria makes another promise, "he will never touch you again," she motherly felt out the inflicted wound on the back of her daughter's head, nestling into her cheek like a mother lion, the only mother she has ever known, and yet she too leaves her.

Leaves her with the secret that lies between them both, " _si Mama_."


	8. Chapter 8

**Breaking Dawn: Patience  
**

Benita sighs laying on her back, throwing up the tennis ball she found underneath the pile of blankets the Cullens were letting her use, she would not take a single of their comforts, but the ball was harmless, for the thousandth time, she threw it up, it brought good memories, "Where is Seth?"

The warden peeks a look at Benita, "He is not your concern."

"I want Seth," Edward would not give in, immaculate composure, still reading, biding his time no doubt until they decided that she would be no use to them, and end her life.

"No."

She could try harder, " _please, let me go_."

"No."

 _Puto._ She rolled over, she was tired of seeing him, so she put an arm over her eyes, finding peace in the darkness. No one was giving into her demands, and it was irritating the hell out of her. This feeling of being kept from the cute boy. The one with the kindest of eyes and the brightest of smiles. He was the medicine she needed. The best kind. The interesting kind.

"Why? You think I will hurt him," she smiled that was funny, she tried showing him the joke by jiggling her cuffs, "or that he will hurt me? I wonder what he has to say to this? Or do you let your human slaves have a choice in their lives."

"We don't have slaves," Edward sighed, as if she was acting ridiculous, "and you will never know what he has to say."

"Fine, be difficult," Benita pushed the food away, she was not going to touch now, maybe that would upset someone, "I don't have to listen to you forever. We don't have much time anyways. When everything goes to shit… we will see what happens. We will see if he is interested then."

"He is not allowed to see you," Edward said with finality, flipping the page in his book about the history of half breeds.

Benita refused to give him the simplest of information. Sure he had Nahuel for the physical evidence of what would happen to his daughter, but the future… _the Volturi's justice, or injustice, where they not the same?_

The vegetarian mind-reading father was suffering with the thought that his daughter would die at the hands of the vampire laws.

"She is not going to die. No one will."

 _He was in denial too._

Edward sighed, flipping another page.

Alas he was still composed, from watching Benita, that the theory of annihilation was more invalid each day she kept repeating how they were all going to die. He thought she was just trying to scare them. If only.

She felt the need to say, "She is not as durable as you are."

"What?"

"Your daughter," Benita sniffed the air, "she is in the house right, that little butterfly beat," he shifted in his seat, yup that was his baby girl, "mine was like that too once, it slows a bit after a twenty or so years. She will too, but we are weaker, we always will be."

He paused on his page, not really looking at it, "I don't know who told you that being human was being weak."

"More breakable," Benita corrected herself, seeing his irritable side return, the one where he frowned with his eyes, "I fought against vampires, it is harder for us. That means it will be easier for the Volturi to destroy hybrids when they feel threatened."

"They will not feel threatened."

He must be joking, "Keep telling yourself that _papi chulo,_ " Edward knew what that meant, and he shut his book, and left the attic.

" _Papi Chulo_ ," Benita giggled, that would be his name now.

It was not long till someone took his place, "Can we talk?"

It was not Edward.

"Sure," the mahogany haired and awfully pale female vampire took his empty seat.

Benita tapped her dry lips, curious, because this could only be the person she had _yet_ to meet. She had not spoke with her before but she had seen the female growling for blood when she had taken out Alice, that showed her stance in this whole thing. She had been at the door when Nessie wanted to meet her without her parent's permission, holding her daughter back, that was an crazy night, "you must be the hybrid's mother. Renesmee's mother."

"I am," she said with a cold facade exchanging for a proud smile, and back again, fickle newborn emotions, "and I am not Carlisle, so don't think for a second that I am going to give you any chances after what you did, you don't deserve to be here, you stay away from my daughter, away from my family, get back to wherever it is you came from-"  
"Thank goodness, at least someone has a backbone," Benita leaned back against the wall, relieved, these conversations she could work with, "and here I thought all of you had lost your senses, please take off these chains, hurry before he gets back," she held up her cuffed wrists, "they are beginning to hurt me-"  
The vampire gave her a dead look of contempt, "I am not setting you free."

"Tease," Benita hissed, "then what the hell do you want?"

"Your mother," that made Benita clamp her full pink lips, "how is it that Maria is your mother, how did she… she is a vampire."

"Who said Maria was my mother," Benita fired back, reprimanding herself, "if you think I am giving anything up newborn, you are wrong."

"How do you know that I am a newborn-"

If the smell of thick blood in her tissues was anything to go by, and the way she forgot to blink, fidget, pretend to be human, it meant she still working out the quirks of immortality, "Please, I am trained to know the newborns," it was her type of breed, "I was trained to pick them out, bring them in, and when the year is out, and they are not so strong," of course she knew the rest, the traitor must have explained it, "lets just say I would not have wasted picking someone like you."

"What is that supposed to mean," the newborn lifted her nose, she thought she was so strong.

Benita wanted to push her off that pedestal, "what use could you possibly have, no gifts, no battle experience," she said nothing to this, she got her pegged, "you're just some whore that snagged a vampire, no sexuality, look at you, you act pathetic when it comes to your weaknesses-"

Nessie's mother froze, all vampire, "I am not pathetic."

Benita stood up, her knees were wobbly, but that was the least of their problems, it was working, she bringing her walls down, "Of course you are, hiding behind an army instead of meeting the Volturi head on, you think you can fight them, you are going to get your whole family killed and everyone here will join them or be on the run for centuries to come, what the hell of person allows that to happen, you should be the one in chains-"

"Stop it, just stop-"

"Better send your hybrid daughter to the Volturi, saves us all the trouble of them coming here-"

Like a cobra's strike, the vampire was at her neck, her hands coiling, and so was Edward-

"Bella this isn't you, stop it, let go-" she did let go, and Benita was left gulping in the air she _actually_ needed it, not like her better halves, and as Bella was struggling she was cracking her abused neck in pain. It was not a complete loss. Benita knew she had already gotten to her, it was not hard, more of a game really.

"See you in hell Bella," she waved at the furious vampire, knowing it would irritate her, and it would crush any sympathy these play pretend soldiers had in store for her.

"I always win," she whispered to herself, she prided herself on this, but the chains digging into her wrists said otherwise.

This was a waiting game, and she did not know how long she would last before she caved or the Volturi did them all a favor and put them out of their misery.


	9. Chapter 9

**Benita: Pride  
**

 **(3 months ago.)**

"What did they do to you," Ralph asks when Benita returned, wet to the bone, clothes prickly on her skin, and a crack in her skull. Her pride taken from her.

This is not what she needs right now, "why would you care?"

"Why would I care," it is like he cannot understand her, his alien eyes are once more filled with lethal emotion, "you are my responsibility Benita. I am here to protect-"

"Where were you when I needed you?"

Ralph defends himself, "I was here, waiting-"

That was the worse excuse she had ever heard, "When Santiago slammed my head into the ground," she made it clear for him, her throbbing head was worse now, "where he could have killed me, is that where you were?"

"Maria said you would be safe," he growled out, not really angry at her, but none of that mattered anymore.

"You cannot protect me," Benita needed him to know that, she needed to understand that no one was safe, once again she had forgotten, not again, "you cannot even protect yourself."

He held her back, "What do you mean I can't protect myself?"

"Santiago," the source of all their problems, "he has it out for you. _Quiere sangre_ , your blood," she lowers her voice, so only he can hear, "he can hurt you, he wants to hurt the both of us."

His golden eyes looked over her shoulder, his hand rubbing circles on her shivering shoulder, he saw what this was doing to her, driving her crazy with fear, "I won't let him,I won't let him hurt you, won't let him touch you-"

She shrugged his hand off, she heard this all before, "How can promise me that? He is stronger than you."

"He is not smarter," Ralph tapped his head, a proud smirk growing on his face, "he has yet to get the better of me."

Sure Ralph was a smart _soldado_ , not a newborn, but that meant little to the _machismos_ that Maria had under her spell. He was competition that hanged out with Maria's third, a gold-eyed freak, and nothing bigger than that.

He didn't tell him the whole truth, "Maria agrees with him, she did not tell him no, he will follow through with his threats. He is not going to play fair, he might go back to the Volturi, turn us all in."

Ralph thought aloud, "that can't be good then. Relax, I will speak to Maria," was his consolation, rubbing both of her shoulders, "come here," he said and brought the younger closer, embracing her, "I have to keep a better eye on you, no more going off on your own," he locks up the rest of her freedom by embracing her. The same way her mother had once done, and see where that had gotten her in the end.

"One day," she imagined the day, "Maria and you will not be there to protect me," Benita reminds him, pushing his embrace away, the wind hitting her warmer body, stealing warmth, "I could have died today Ralph. I need to be better. I need to learn how to be stronger against fighting vampires like him."

He doesn't see the urgency, "Today is not that day."

She was not giving this up, "How about tomorrow?"

His face lit up at her sarcasm, "not that day too," he vowed, "as long as I am here, no one is going to take or harm you Nita," sometimes he liked shortening her name, "like I promised your-" he bit his words. He had promised someone else, but that was his secret to keep.

She made a face.

"Does your head hurt?"

"It will heal by tomorrow," she massaged it once more, upset that Santiago had got the best of her, "I need to feed some more, I need to be stronger," Ralph nodded in sadness, he disliked when she fed upon people, because he would rather she feed on animals, and that upset her even more.

Why was he always the odd one in their army, "Why do you do it Ralph?

"Do what?"

"Why do you feed on animals," she groaned in anger, wanting him to fit in like she did, to just give up in this act of holding onto his humanity, "will a human or a rat fill me more?"

He was giving her that look, like she was some small child, "Sometimes it is not about what makes you stronger, your body won't follow you in death, but your soul, now that is something that you keep always," Ralph spoke up as they walked down a road, no doubt leading to a town, and to her dinner, "sometimes it is about choosing the lesser of both evils, whatever you need to to do to keep the soul from dying."

She looked down the road she would take, not really worried about souls she would take tonight, least of all her own, "So if I were to choose the less of the two evils, are animals or humans more evil?"

"Benita," he patronized her.

"That is why I do not discuss this with you," she took to the highway beside him, it was desolate, only their voices for company, "the day an animal is more evil than a human, than even a vampire, then I will change my diet. Animals have more of a pure soul than a human ever will."

Ralph stopped when he noticed she was going into the nearby city, he never went further than this, "You are so hard-headed," he muttered to himself, "just like your-"

"Mama," she smirked up at him as she left, "yes, I know."

He muttered against his full lips, but Benita was too far down the road to hear.


	10. Chapter 10

**Breaking Dawn: Humility**

"Today is the day I am without you _Ralph y Mama_ ," Benita's eyes closed as two tears leaked down her face, she swallowed them in thirst remembering, because the walls they had made to protect her had crumbled days before, and she has finally fed from these Cullens, branded forevermore traitor, what bothered her most was, "I miss you _mi Ralph_."

This was the longest she had been away from him.

She had been here weeks at the Cullen house, her prison was becoming colder, winter searched for her warmth, and she had lost the fight, relinquishing the hot air from her mouth, it was sweet breath, a traitor's breath, "cinnamon rolls," she had ate the delicious dessert just last night and they rolled in her belly, threatening to come up at the thought of giving in.

"Too long, I have been here too long," she had come in October and it very easily could be November, already a month lost, and she was getting weaker, despite their daily ingestible interventions. The only fault and failure was her own.

" _Mama, te necesito Mama_ ," she whispered to herself, wondering if she even knew where she was, if she would be moved with rage for seeing her so broken, or if she even cared enough to save her, the disappointment.

"You look like her, the shape of her eyes, her chin," Benita's nose registered the scent too late, her body was too weak to stand any longer, and she knew if she continued this way she would no longer be aware to fight when they force fed her.

She asked the hazy blonde vampire, "Like who?"

He came into the room, no longer hiding, she knew that face, "like Maria."

This man, was more than a tall soldier, he was a general lost and found again, "Major," the name had branded into her memory, her mother had put it there, "you finally came," the last time they had met, his hand had been around her neck, squeezing hard, "did you come to put me out of my misery?"

"No," a sense of calm came over Benita, and she knew that it was from him.

" _Mi Mama_ always told me," she decided to be truthful, too tired for anything else, "that when you saw me. You were going to try to kill me, you were trained to do it," she opened one eye to catch the frown on his face, "she was right."

He was angry enough to growl, the calmness was gone, and in its place an igniting fury, "She doesn't know a thing about me."

He held the same face as her mother now, without mercy. This was a face that killed newborns before bedtime, "Major, _ya sabes_ , once a mate, always a mate," Benita shook her head, and resting it back against the wall, watching what her words did to him, "once a mate always a mate _güero_."

The flare of something evil passed through his eyes, and he sped to her, "stop Jasper!"

She did not get to feel Jasper's hands, because his pixie mate was there, the one that could see the future, the one that had made him turn his back on his past, turn his back on Maria, Emo pixie, "you promised you wouldn't hurt her. Look at her, she isn't going to harm anyone!"

"Alice," the emotion in his voice, it was nauseating, "I told you to wait downstairs. I can do this, this is not your concern-"

"Not my concern?" That upset her, "If I had- what would you have done to her."

He did not answer her question, "This is between me and her," he said as if Benita had a choice in all this, "you shouldn't be here."

"Neither should you," Benita felt so tired that she fell asleep to them arguing.

It was nice to have the hate and suspicion to be on someone else for once.

Seth.

Kind eyes.

Bright Smile.

She imagined deep-set pair of dark eyes and how alight in wonder and happiness they had been upon entering her room. Not afterwards, there was too much yelling, too much arguing, and she missed them when they took her interesting visitor away. Jacob felt lukewarm compared to the younger, and she had not the pleasure to even smell or speak to him. It felt like a sad unfinished dream.

"Hey, wake up," someone whispered, it was dark now, night.

"Hey," she felt someone prod her shoulder, Benita opened her eyes, someone shut the lights off, and the dark surrounded her, not blinding her from the person beside, a handsome face glowing in excitement, and she for once was glad for it.

"It's you," it was him.

The teenage boy from before, not man yet, but he would be, his eyes melted with the dark, his russet skin so warm she could feel it from a few inches away, it was like the heater was on full blast, the Mexican sun kissing her skin, "you should not be here Seth. It isn't safe-"

"You are not going to hurt me," his lips receded and his growing smile almost made Benita lose her breath, how could he be so warm and kind, he did not belong in this world that was going to go to shit, "you wouldn't hurt me."

"I am not the one you need to be worried about," Benita whispered so only he could hear, "they don't sleep, and they will hear that you-" how did he get in here?

"Oh, here, I almost forgot," he had brought another plate, this one was just as good as the last, but in his hands it made her feel guilty, she was going to disappoint him, "I wondered if you were more of a sweet tooth, or do you enjoy pastries more," it was all sweets, he was trying to be kind, "I don't want you going hungry, you do get hungry right-"

"Benita," she supplied her name.

"Benita," he smiled when she did, "that is a pretty name."

" _gracias_."

"You have a cute accent," Seth cheeks turned red, and Benita felt her own heat up, and her throat ache, she stopped it from acting out, focusing on what he was saying, "my name is Seth, I am here if you need anything, you know, if you want pillows, more food, um a heater," he noticed her shiver and he gave his warmth, and concerns without asking anything in return, and that warmed her to the toes.

She already knew his name, "I like the name Seth," she betrayed herself when she saw his brightening smile, the shoulder pressing into hers pressed deeper, and she could feel her own lips forming into one, this one weaker, this one less real, but it was a try, "why are you here Seth?"

It was a simple answer, "well, you see, my mom doesn't get off work until eight, and it's the weekend so I have more time to come over, check on my sister, Leah, have you seen her yet, wait no, you wouldn't, you've been stuck up here," he bit his lips, awkward, his face scrunched in this weird expression while he was stalling, "but honestly I just came to check on up on you."

"Check on me?" _Why would he do that?_ "but you don't even know me?"

The way he was acting he might as well have known her. Ralph and Mama were the only ones that got to be this close, and the rest were six feet under. She could blame it on the weather, the rain, and the plunging temperatures that made Seth inch by inch so that his warmth could help her condition, but something Ralph said stuck with her, something about the soul. His soul.

It glowed when he was around, "Do I have to have a reason to be nice," he was so serious, not an ounce of sarcasm or doubt laced his words. This was frightening, this boy was young, untouched to the nasty of the world, but not ignorant, there was conviction, confidence, and that scared Benita.

Seth had his answer all along, his eyes softening, and his body sitting right next to hers, the heater in this cold attic, but she could see what he was trying to do. He was trying to get closer to her, and she was not fighting him, that was what scared her more. It was not hard. She could sympathize with him. He was a slave to the Cullens, and the way things were going she was turning into one too.

The vampire slave lifted the plate, "Please try to eat."

 _Oh, not this again._ He could not understand, "I can't," Benita shook her head, pushing the plate back into his lap, and feeling worse that she was being ungrateful.

People starved daily for food.

She could at least try to make it right, especially for him, "thank you, thank you for bringing me this," she took the plate from him, setting it down, and hoping this would pacify him, "but if I take their food again, I would be a traitor."

"Why?" He gripped the edges of the rug, tearing into the seams, "You are starving yourself to death, how is that fair to anyone-"

" _Mi Mama_ ," was the simple answer, "she tolerates nothing. The Major," she growled the name, "all of them are traitors. When the Volturi comes for them, then my mother will no longer have the chance to-" why did she feel the need to tell him? Why was she opening like a blushing maiden to her lover in the night? Why was it- Cullens...

He had been so cunning, Benita growled, "Are you tricking me? Did someone put you up to this?"

Seth's smile dissolved, "Benita no."

"Who sent you," it could have been any of them, "Edward, Carlisle," she growled now, "El Major, _ese cabron, voy a matarlo. Vas a mirar, vas a mirar_ -" Benita stood, pulling on her chains with all her strength, the time had come for her escape, she had to get away from them, the pain dug into her wrist, it felt like the skin was pulling from bone, an overwhelming throbbing,- "Ah!"

Seth's hands arms surrounded her, holding her in place, he was too tall for her, as tall as Jasper had been when he attacked her, "Stop it Benita!"

She only lasted for another moment, but she did stop, sagging into his arms, and saddened enough to let the tears fall freely in front of this stranger.

"I am so tired. I want to go home," Benita told him, "please take me home Seth, please," she hoped he would at least keep this from the others. She could not stand their pity, and how her mother would smash her face in half for being so weak. There would be a great punishment for this failure, and she only had herself for protection. No one would be there to have her back on this road of destruction and blood.

"I have you Benita," was Seth's sweet reply, and then the darkness took her.


	11. Chapter 11

**Benita: Lust  
**

 **(1 month ago.)**

Santiago is staring at her.

She doesn't know why, but over the mass of red stained bodies sucking, biting, ripping, and thrusting his intense looks do not seem so innocent.

Fuck you, Benita wants to say, even if it seems inappropriate here, but instead she leaves the orgy, and her too busy mother who is biting the mouth of a crying girl, blood-crazed, and too far away.

Outside the abandoned building the chill air and night-time sounds help drown the painful screams and hoots of glee inside.

Benita likes it better out here.

Calls of nature and the cool dark night to keep her company.

It is lonely though, too lonely for a full moon night like this, New Year's night, party time, but she wants something intimate. The orgy put her in a mood for seclusion, and she knows the perfect person to spend it with.

"Ralph," she whispers his name, finding him on the roof of the building, staring up at the bright constellation of desert stars, and she wonders why he always does that.

"Ralph," she repeats and he looks at her.

 _The same way he always has_ , but to her it is different. She did not like the way the mustached Spaniard Santiago looks at her, like she is meat to be devoured, no, she likes the kind thoughtful eyes of Ralph, light-skinned, long dark braid, alien gold yes, but kind all the same.

He had his moments where he thought he was better than the rest, fought better than the rest, and was her only hope for surviving this hellish world, and in a way he had wormed himself into her sanctuary. Further than her mother, further than the people she had saved, and far further than any potential mate could.

He needed to know.

"Benita why are you-"

She kissed him, soft and expecting, she could give him that.

The arms at her shoulders pushed back rather than forward, "Benita?"

" _Te quiero Ralp_ h," she whispers like Maria would, inching closer so she was almost on his lap, seductive and ready, it always worked, " _te quiero adentro, quiero besar_ -"

That seems to only make it worse, "Stop it! Stop."

He pushes her off, pushes her almost off the roof, "what the hell Ralph!"

"I should be saying the same thing to you," his eyes are wide, so much more certain, and less understanding, "what has gotten into you?"

"I wanted to-"

He is shaking, in fear, in disgust, possibly both, "wanted to what?"

He looked at her like she was the enemy, a competing _soldado_ , dare she say it, like Santiago. It made her feel like a traitor to his faith in her, it made her blood sizzle in her veins, and her belly to bulge and shrink with guilt

"I'm so sorry," she muttered to him, no longer certain he would believe it. Her kiss had been a mistake. A bad mistake, he said no, all those looks, all the moments she had read wrong, and he truly thought of her as a comrade. Nothing more, nothing less. It She was the lustful beast, worse than Santiago.

She was the betrayer.

"I was stupid, _una pendeja_ ," she calls herself, "you said I was one too."

He was pinching his nose now, "Benita. This is too complicated. You should not have done that," he refused to let the painful moment pass, and so the guilt refused to leave her.

"You're right," she deflated herself, shushing any remorse at being denied a moment of pleasure with someone she had grown to care for, dare she say it, "Mama would never have allowed it anyways."

"She has nothing to do with it," he pointed out, "you are no longer a child anymore Benita. You are a woman grown. You should know better than to pull something like this."

"Yes," he is always right, always the adult in their relationship, "even if you keep treating me like baby," she pouted back.

"Come here," he forced her back into his hold, this one friendly, and she honestly would rather get away from everyone in general, save her the humiliation, "you know I love you like you are my own," he wanted the father role now, how very respectful of him, "you are young Benita, you do not know what you want. You have all these emotions going crazy within you-"

"Do you not feel these feelings?"

He was quiet once more, looking above, "not anymore."

"You loved someone."

"Very much," now it was all making sense to her.

The truth made Benita curious, "Was she beautiful?"

At first, she thought he would not answer, after a long while he did, his eyes searching the ground below, "very much," he repeated, a sad smile on his face.

"What was her name?"

"I think that is enough questions for one night," he stopped her there, "you look tired, why don't you get some rest, we will talk about it later."

She refused to settle, it was too early, "I hate sleeping."

"I love when you sleep, it is healthy for you," he corrected her, and she laid her head against his chest, comfortable in his embrace, "sleep, dream, _mi preciosa_ ," he kissed her head, forgiving, "let me hear your heartbeat."

He was always so invested in her heartbeat, not like the others that questioned, and also regarded her as an anomaly.

"I am different," she thought aloud, "maybe that is why Santiago wants me dead."

"He doesn't," Ralph sounded so sure.

"Then what does he want with me?"

"Don't think about it," he instructed her, "sleep now."

She tried while they lay back on the roof listening to the noises of dying and celebration in the rooms below.


	12. Chapter 12

**Breaking Dawn: Chastity  
**

Benita was no longer in the Cullen's attic.

She had no idea where she was, but she had an idea who it was that abducted her, "Seth?"

He had to have taken her away from them, it was the only way she escaped that awful place of persecution and judgment. The freedom sent shivers through her excited skin, and she felt like flipping off the bedroom bed, but… that feeling settled to a timid curiosity, with her alien surroundings, and what that meant for her liberation.

In the teenager's room, there was bare blue walls, lighter areas must have been where posters once were, and on the floor was scattered DVDs, unwashed clothes, and food in various stages of decomposition. The musky scent met her senses, "what," she picked up days old cardboard on the bed to see moldy pizza inside.

She threw it away, " _Dios mio_ ," at least the enemy was gone for now, and yet the smell seemed to be worse here, she was beginning to believe teenage boys were far more disgusting than she first thought. Yet, her strong sense of smell caught a scent she noticed and familiarized with sunshine, sea mist, and something tangy sweet.

It led her to sprawl herself over the unmade bed, she inhaled the pillow, it had been him, _her Sun_ , "Seth? Where are you?"

No one answered, so she leaned up on the bed, standing on sock covered feet, and noticed that she was no longer in her own clothes, "Seth," she was in his clothes, his scent, she could smell it, the sheets, the pillow, all his, and hers was mixed with it too. What had happened the night before, this morning, and what had he done to her? Had he taken advantage of her? Had he?

She was about to reach down there when she stopped herself, he wouldn't, "Seth!"

Now she was beyond worried, because he had yet to show up.

The sound of a tea kettle made her dash to the bedroom door, opening it to a hallway, that led into a kitchen, "Seth, are you in here," he was not, Benita turned off the kettle and spotted a peanut butter jelly sandwich with the crust cut off just laying for her.

"For me?" He was too sweet, she took several bites, while leaning around corners of the house looking for his familiar face.

"I guess he left me," Benita finished it without thinking while she sat in the living room, staring off at the grandfather clock that ticked and chimed the time she was wasting, waiting, and not succeeding in her mission. It did not take long for her eyes to register the front entrance, and how the screen door left nothing to the imagination.

"Seth," she had to remind herself, because the chill of the Northwestern wind beckoned to her, tempting her with it's open hands of freedom, and the security that would come with going back to the deserts and swollen cities of the South.

"Okay," Benita took advantage of her weakness, jogging to the screen door, and no one stopped her from leaving the stranger's house, and the memorable boy that was too kind for his own good.

It was not to be, someone caught her around the waist, her body lifted from making it to the porch steps, "whoa, not so fast."

Raven hair, sea mist, Seth, "You."

"Yeah, I was just outside," the tall Native lifted her up and back, she could see over his shoulder, rippling muscle, and an arm slung around her waist.

The screen door slapped shut and they were both back inside the house. She, back on her two bare feet and still surprised that he was able to manhandle her like this, keep her hands at a safe distance, and still hold her in place. Most mortals could not even make her move an inch.

"Seth," it was him, he had not left her, he had not abandoned her, "I was just going to-"

"You were leaving," he said it evenly, without a hint of emotion, and she stopped fidgeting, he repeated against her ear, "you were going to leave me."

 _Did he believe that?_ _Did she really think that if he had not come back that she would have dove into the ocean and swam back to California? That if he was not here she would have lost her curiosity of him? That she would not have returned for him?_

"No," she placed her fumbling hands on his chest and instantly began regretting it. He was hot, as hot as she was, fingers on his bare chest, and that sent shivers down her back to the back of her calves. She was in trouble.

"Never," she rejected the accusation again, nodding her head frantically, not wanting to be returned to that place with mind-readers and force-feeding, "I was going to go get you."

"Please Benita," he shut his eyes, but his arms remained at her waist, and hers on his chest, "don't lie to me."

"I am not."

"Yes, yes you are," when he looked at her again, his dark eyes were twinkling, unshed tears in them, and she had never thought she would see it there. The warm smiles and reassurance of his presence had melted into something primal, something far more real.

The pain. Seth was in pain, she had done this to him.

"I am sorry Seth, _perdoname_ ," she asked, expecting him to reassure her, tell her that he would forgive her if she did not try it instead, but instead he looked behind her, checking something.

"Jake and the guys will be here," she wondered who the others were, hopefully not with the Volturi or the Cullens, she could not fight to save her life, her head was on overload, and Seth was too close, his shirt from the night before was nothing compared to what his soft skin felt like. She wanted to trace all the lines, every part of him, and she wanted to know the planes that made him human.

"You are so warm, warmer than me," Benita found herself saying, it was a nice change.

He swallowed, his adam's apple bobbing, and his eyes latched on her face.

It was humbling and a special feeling to then have his hands on both sides of her face, holding as if she was something worth looking at, no one had ever looked at her like that, "you should go get dressed before they come. I put your clothes in the washer," he blushed for some reason, and that only made Benita want to hold him longer.

"I don't want to leave you," she dug her chin into his chest and looked up at him, hoping he would react to her, and it felt good to feel his arms go around her shoulders. She could not handle his rejection too. How was it that his opinion meant so much? Why did she let him in so easily?

Maria would have killed him, Ralph would have made sure he left her alone, but she believed deep down, she would refuse to let both things happen.

Seth was still worried, the creases in his forehead getting deeper, "Jake is not going to like you being here Benita. You need to stay in my room."

"Jacob Black," she repeated the name of the first man she had met at the Cullens, "what does he have to do with this," she asked when a howl broke their calm, and more followed, getting closer, and louder.

He said in a panic, "Go Benita."

"I don't want to," it sounded like something big was moving outside the house, it frightened her, her vampire side rebelling to be released, "Seth, let me go, I need to run before they come, I need to get out of here-"

Seth was manhandling again, his voice more frantic, "I said no Benita. Don't fight me!"

"Let me go," she pulled hard against him, he almost fell with her.

That must have been what set him off, he roared like, pinning her against him, "NO! I SAID GO TO MY ROOM!"

"Seth?"

It was still him, but the _scream?_ The tone was so off that for a second she had to make sure. He had yelled at her, not kindly at all, _not Seth._

"Why," Benita was more surprised that had actually yelled at her than the fact that the beasts outside were going to get them both, he was just a mortal after all, and he had no idea of the horrors the supernatural world could inflict. He was strong, but not that strong, "why do you stay here, run _pendejo_!"

It was her turn to hold him now, "they will kill you! You will get us both killed."

He had the guts to smile, "No, they won't."

For some reason that really ticked her off, "Oh why not?"

"I am one of them Benita," was Seth's easy reply.


	13. Chapter 13

**Benita: Gluttony  
**

 _ **(2 weeks ago.)**_

Maria screamed murder about the graffiti and trash-littered room, throwing things against the concrete walls, sometimes unlucky _soldados,_ " _Cabron! Maldito, cuando regresa yo voy a matarlo, no voy a cortar todos mis partes favoritas, y voy a_ -" Benita just tried to stay out of her way. Someone had just fucked up, big time, and she honestly had no idea whom.

She found a familiar face, "Hola Juanita!

"Hola Benita," the light-skinned Argentinian was less spirited than the younger, her skin scarred with teeth marks, and her arms branded with claw marks of fallen warriors, " _como era Monterrey?"_

"Good," that was the sum of their stay with their original coven, old-farts and friends of her mother's retired armies, "Maria got some potentials while we were there," Benita supplied the news, these were newborns with powers, and everyone always got anxious over those. New blood, gifted, and potentials.

Her Mama had been in a very good mood from their trip, except whatever Joaquin had told Maria had sent her into a fit to kill him and go utterly crazy, "what happened while we were gone," she asked Juanita, one of Maria's generals, and they could still hear Maria throwing shit back in forth in the abandoned building they were using this month, "what got her so angry?"

"Santiago is gone."

Benita could not help but smile, "he is?"

"He left a few weeks ago," Juanita shrugged with her scarred arms across her chest, on display for the newborns she had finished training for the day, "didn't say where he went."

"Oh he didn't," Benita found her heart rejoicing, and the generals came to her then, looking to her for report, or what to do in this situation, "stand by," that was all they could do, "Maria will get herself together, and we will find the meaning of this."

There was nothing much left to say. Santiago was gone, and for all intents and purposes Benita found herself rejoicing. That was cause for even more celebrations, and her decision to share it with Ralph.

"Ralph?"

He was not in his usual place under a tarp near the back of a falling apart crack house, his books were not even open, all stacked in the corner, and that worried her.

Ralph was not with Estaban either, "where is he Steve," she asked of Ralph's only other acquaintance.

 _Steve,_ as he liked being called was just as clueless, "I thought he went with you to Monterrey?"

"No, he stayed behind this time," Benita was liking it less and less with the way things were turning out. He had never been absent for longer than a few weeks of her life. Never had she been clueless of his whereabouts, never had she been so confused about what he was doing, or who he had left with.

Steve from East Los still had no answers, "I have not seen him since I returned from New Mexico," he said, "and that was two weeks ago."

Mama did not have answers either.

"Don't bother me, I have other things to worry about," Maria sat with her head between her legs, trying to gather herself, and it would seem that she was even less worried about Ralph's whereabouts, instead focused on her place as ruler of all Mexico and some southern provinces of the U.S., "get everyone, I need to speak to them."

She made all her army attend her mandatory session, "traitors everywhere I turn, who else wants to leave, _hm_ , who else wants something better?"

La Jefa dared the army, her petite frame, and bouncing dark-brown curls would have made a man laugh, but no one dared to.

Someone answered, "I am loyal only to you," Juanita was the first to say, stepping forward with her high-braid swinging behind her, and everyone chimed in accordingly. Many respected Juanita, and her love for Maria was their love too.

"That is what _Santiago_ said," Maria was already saying his name the way she did all traitors, with malicious intent.

" _Estaba una rata_ , from the start, we could not have known, we should have caught him for you, made him pay," is Juanita's dismissal of Maria's treacherous mood, "we are your _soldados_. Command us. We don't turn our backs on our _Madre, La Jefa de jefas_. We stay," she punched her hand, "and we fight."

The army chimes in accordingly, some more than others.

Mama agrees with Juanita, slapping her general's back, "si, _estaba una rata del Volturi_ ," Maria's pale finger pointed out to a few of the army, "warning to all those that betray us. We kill him," she promised the army, "we will have blood."

The newborns rallied for it, and she used her finger to slice the air as if it was Santiago's neck, "The Volturi cannot stop us. I am sick of their ways and how he goes to them, giving them everything we know. But what can we do," she threw her hands up, all sensibility gone from her, "they make all the rules."

Israel, a new recruit spoke up, "how can they know? Santiago is our man, he is loyal to us, _to you,_ " he emphasized that, "he can always lie," he seemed so assured.

" _Porque_?" She grasped Israel's face between her hands, harsher than she ever had with Santiago, " _Aro es porque_ ," she said the name with deep hatred, and threw newbie's face away into the crowd, his comrades catching his fall.

She turned on the watching eyes, " _ese diablo_ , can see everything, by only touching your hand," everyone shouted in anger and fear, "now he knows all your faces and there is nothing I can do about it," she sounded more like he was stealing all her best toys rather than vampire lives. People took it as if she cared. Their would go to war for her, and do little else.

"We will fight!"

"We will kill Santiago! Kill the Volturi!"

"Yeah! YEAH!"

It was what they were created for.

What Benita was born for.

Maria let them sit in that for a while, "Benita come with me, I have a mission for you."

That was certainly a first, " _si Mama_."

They went far enough, away from eyes and ears, this must be a very serious thing, Maria held her taller daughter, even if they shared the same hair and same eyes, they had their differences, "you remember mi soldado Jasper," it was not a question, Benita remembered the story, "good, _mi güero tiene una otra familia_ ," she must have meant the vegetarian vampires that Ralph always spoke about, to the North was where Jasper ran, with his tail between his legs, and Maria had never really forgiven him.

" _Si Mama_ ," Benita remembered him.

Maria petted her head, she had to reach up to do it now, " _Si, y necesitan tu ayuda mi niña_."

"How can I help them," Benita could see where this was going.

"The Volturi wants to wipe them out," Maria said gleefully in English, her accent strong, "that is why Santiago left," she cursed again, but controlled herself, "that is why they need all their _soldados_ , and you will be there as my eyes and ears."

They had this discussion before, how to shadow the enemy right in front of their eyes, "I know what to do Mama."

"I know you do," she shared a smile with her, "but be careful," she let her lips trace her daughter's hands, "you must play nice with them, tell them lies, make a good story, about me, go along with them, and when the time comes-"

"I know what to do Mama," Benita repeated, no longer focused on Ralph missing, over Santiago leaving, but on completing her first mission.

"Good," her Mama gave her _besos_ , on her forehead, quick little daggers of warning, "don't disappoint."


	14. Chapter 14

**Breaking Dawn: Abstinence  
**

"I am one of them," Seth confused her even more when he said it again, "they will not hurt me."

"Seth," everything about him and his world confused her, and now he was telling her that he was one of the beasts outside, "I don't understand."

That is when Jacob Black entered with more look-alikes than she could count, slapping their bare wet feet behind him, each one tall as he, with cut short raven hair, dark energized eyes, and muscled abdomens beyond possible imagination. They were glistening with rain, their soaked heads ducking when they entered the room, wearing only jean cut-offs, their impressive chests on display, rippling muscles that would end in only bloodbath, and Benita stood in front of Seth, she had to protect him. They were not human.

"You brought her here," Jake growled, visibly shaking, his hands clenching, "do you have any idea what you have done Seth? The Cullens are freaking out."

Seth stepped in front of her now, defending. Benita wished she could see his face, "She was going crazy there Jake-"

"That doesn't mean you take her-"

"Hey, don't yell at him," one of the guys pushed past Jacob, a finger pointed at her, "It's her fault too! She probably made Seth do it!"

One of the guys was actually a female, she had raven hair to her shoulders, feminine, but tall like an Amazonian. A warrioress Maria would have turned if she was given the chance, but Benita and her mother had seen these type of supernatural creatures. Shape-shifters.

" _Deja Seth impasse_ ," the half-vampire told the female, Benita's hands balled into fists too, the venom dancing on her tongue, threatening to spill, even the thought of someone touching Seth made her want to attack, "leave him alone. If you have to take me back, do it, but leave him out of this."

The female got in her face, "Oh I will, after I kick your ass!"

Benita bared her canines when the woman growled, she would not go down without a fight.

A hand got in the way, "Stop it Leah, no one is fighting."

Seth came between them all, ever the gentle peacemaker Benita was learning, "Jake, she deserves to be here. She deserves to get away from them. They attacked her, they locked her up-"

The female shape-shifter looked mean enough to spit on her, as if she was a bad omen upon him, "She attacked the Cullens first! She wants us all dead, come on, she is the enemy Seth! Open your eyes!"

Those were Benita's eyes she was talking about, Seth was not stupid, he knew the truth, she never wanted to be apart of any of this, and feeling his hand envelop her shoulder, right in front of the angry female shifter, it calmed her, "She is my imprint Leah," there he went confusing her too with words she did not understand, "she stays with me. You know that means Jake, you know how important the imprint is," Seth turned to another tall shifter, this one as tall as Jacob, "Sam, come on man, back me up here."

"I would do it," said the shifter named Sam, he shared a long look with Jacob, there was something going on there, "if you join the pack again Seth, I will let you keep her."

"What the hell is that," the female pushed against the one named Sam, "hell no. He is not leaving Jake's pack, our pack," Leah corrected herself, "not if I have anything to say about it," she adds cracking the fingers in her fists, it would appear that she was a viper with everyone not just a select few.

Jake thought differently, his demeanor calm, "It's his decision Leah."  
She turned on him too, her eyes brought anger to a whole other level, "Seth doesn't _serve_ anyone, especially not Sam, we are our own wolves to command, and my brother stays with me. Jake, tell him, don't stand there, tell him!"

Seth did not think so, Benita could feel him shaking, he was upset, "I will do it Sam."

" _You will?"_ the wolves shared looks. This was no small thing. Sure Benita was confused in every way, but she could see that this was no easy choice for Seth. _Why was he doing this? Why would he give up his ties?_

Seth did not stop looking at Sam, "as long as she stays here, as long as she stays with me," the female growled in anger, and that made Benita worry, she clenched her hand around Seth's arm, the female could not have him.

"I stay with Seth," Benita agreed too.

The female's chuckle was cruel, "Of course you would say that, he is the only one that cares about you."

"Leah! Stop it."

"What? It's the truth, you being here," Leah was addressing Benita now, "it's going to hurt any chance he's got to make it through all this shit with Nessie and the Cullens," the female told her, and the words did not go easily down. Benita had an understanding with the female shifter, she knew the consequences, and how horrible this could go if they weren't careful. The one thing Seth seemed to lack.

Benita stood next to him all the same during all the exchanges of glares and looks.

"I can protect her Seth," the tallest one rumbled, "I can stand behind you on your decision," said Sam, "if you promise come back to our pack. Promise to put _our_ people first."

"That doesn't mean you have to join him," Jacob spoke up, rolling his eyes as if he had heard this all before, "the Cullens can protect her too, they are not our enemies."

The silence hurt to be in, especially becuase she the problem of it happening in the first place, "Don't hurt yourself Seth, don't do this if it is going to hurt you-" Benita felt herself say, even if she did not understand it, she could see that it hurt him to agree to those terms. Here she was destroying a boy's life. It seemed so unfair, it was not right to take when he only gave and gave her more, "I can go back to the Cullens," it hurt to say it.

"Don't worry Benita," he noticed the look on her face, "you don't ever have to go back there."

"I worry about you," Benita had to tell him, "I don't want to see your pain."

"Same here," the boy took her face again, there was a more relieved smile on his lips, and she noticed how he seemed to make everything just a hum in the back of her head, bad static over the radio, "this will keep you safe."

"Yeah right. This is going to make the Cullens hate our asses," Leah said, exhaling as if she had run miles, and she massaged her temple, "bro why did you have to imprint on the evil vampire? You fucked us all over."

The wolves silenced for the cat fight.

It was like they expected it, hell they wanted it.

She would not give them the pleasure, "Evil vampire," Benita grinned, "you can say that again," at least Leah was the first person to notice that she was not just fucking around coming to the Cullens. She wanted to cause serious damage, not participate in assisted suicide at the hands of a _puto_ traitor.

"I don't know," said one of the guys, "Seth always liked Mexican food."

"Fuck that's true," another chimed in, "Leah you're little brother has more game than you."

"Oh shutup," Leah bit back, "before I clobber you Paul."

The guys laughed, while Sam and Jacob shushed them, the tense atmosphere dulling to a hum that was tolerable enough to relax her half-vampire nerves. Her fingers reached out to Seth, and he did not push them away, but he did not return the favor.

Benita was more interested in, "Wait? _Your brother_ , she is your sister," Benita raised her eyebrows at Seth, he gave her a smile she had never seen, this was one was far more forced than the last, he was nervous.

He took her hand now, "Benita, this is my sister Leah."

Benita looked at Leah, the woman did not respect her, that much was obvious, but, Seth's sister, that changed things, this was the woman that cared for Seth with a passion that she could respect. Nothing was stronger than family.

Benita dipped her head, " _Bienvenido_ Leah."

She waved her like a pesky fly, "Yeah, yeah, not that you care or anything, but if you hurt my brother," the female was back in her face, they would be tearing into each other if they did not have their humanity left, or the guys here to hold them back, "I will make sure you never get back home to your _Mama_."

That was no problem, as long as she knew, "If you ever threaten me or Seth, I will suck you dry," Benita promised her.

"Be nice girls," Jake said putting a hand around Leah, and Seth pulled Benita back into his chest.

"Be nice Benita," Seth whispered in her ear, tickling her belly, and she would have spun out of his grasp only to plant her lips on his surprised ones, only if all the eyes in the room were not looking at her like she was an alien in their living room.

One of the shapeshifters in the back spoke up, "So what's the plan? What do we tell the Cullens?"

"She is an imprint," the one named Sam looked to Jacob, and Benita was getting a feeling that these two were the leaders, "she is pack business now. Tell the Cullens that Jake turned her over to my pack, and in the meantime, Sue can stay with Charlie, and she-"

"Benita," Seth spoke up, he even said her name with the accent, "her name is Benita."

Sam listened, "Alright, Benita can stay here with Seth-"

"I am not letting a vampire sleep in my room," Leah walked right up to Sam. It looked like she was ready to punch him, "who the hell do you think you are, trying to control my life again-"

"Stop it guys. She is staying in my room," Seth spoke up, his hand rubbed Benita's arm, subconsciously calming her, "unless any of you have a problem with that too?"

"This is your home Seth, Sue will understand, I will explain it to her," Sam said, leaning over Leah throwing the accusation back at her, "unless you want to take that away from him too?"

"Just leave her alone," Jake came beside Leah, his hand went over her shoulder, but she pushed him off, "that is her little brother, she has a right to fight over this if she wants to."

"I am done," Leah lifted her hands, "I am tired of Alphas. I will be my own Alpha," she snubbed in both of their faces, "until you both find out that she is going to get my little brother killed, she is going to get us all killed, whatever, I can't control you," this was directed at Seth, and then she went running out the screen door.

"She's right," Benita said it, ripping to shreds her mother's plans, "I have to tell you why I came here, Seth," she brought his hand to her face, the veins teamed there, especially on one knuckle, but she ignored it, "Leah is right, I am evil."


	15. Chapter 15

**Breaking Dawn: Forgiveness  
**

His response was automatic, "You are not evil Benita. You were only doing what you needed to survive-"

"Seth, it's not that simple-"

"Your mother," Benita did not like his tone when he spoke of Maria, as if it was her fault that she committed sins unspeakable, "she taught you either fight or die, Carlisle explained it to me, you never had a choice, they made the choices for you, and if you didn't follow them, do what they say, then they would have done things to you, they would have-"

"Listen to me, Seth," yelling was the only way to make him stop, "Stop it Seth!"

He did.

Benita could see it in his eyes.

Seth did not know her, he did not know how many things had killed her soul, the people she had buried to rot forgotten in the deserts that blended into one, the lives she had let pass away without a prayer, without a merciful thought, she deserved his hatred, his disgust, "But I am Seth, I have done evil things."

"I don't believe it," he whispers it, determined, but Benita was beginning to understand that he _could not_ let himself believe it, not find the reason to give up his sympathy for a killer.

She needed to break his illusion, it would hurt later, "you have only seen and heard what my Mama wanted you to see, I kept my true mission from the Cullens, I was more than a spy, my plan was so much more evil," it looked like he was beginning to understand that.

He was listening, "I don't understand Benita."

That was her point, "that is why I have to explain it to you," she hoped that he would still be here, when she told how bad it really was, and how lying would no longer give her a rush, but only bring more pain to those eyes she was beginning to memorize, "no more lies."

Their gaze was interrupted, "Tell us," Jacob told her, pulling up a chair, only one person was it meant for, not Seth, and so she took it, becoming the center of attention, "tell us everything."

The guys refused to sit, and so she sighed into her hands, she rubbed her anxious face, perhaps her human eyes would make them pity her, "Maria," here it went, _goodbye Mama_ , "she is my birth mother."

Jake prompted, "As in? What?"  
Benita explained, "I grew in her womb and she birthed me, that type of mother."

It looked like they were still processing that, Seth's face was scrunched up as lemon, as if he was trying to figure out an offensive tactic, the way her mother had looked right before she decided on raiding vampires that only preached peace.

She felt exasperated, "Maria had me forty years ago, and I grew up in her coven. I am her daughter, I don't know how to make that sound more simple-"

It was Jake's turn to sit down, "But this Maria women, Jasper said she was a vampire?"

"Fat good that did her," this was the hard part to make them believe, "when she met George, he did her worse things to her than your-" Benita was ready to curse the Major but she held back, "my mother, she went into a depression, she wanted to start over, and she met the wrong vampire for that."

Benita pulled out a picture from her bra, passing it to Jacob, "that is my Mama, Ralph, and Juanita, and that one," the one without the head, it had been torn off, "is my Papa. He changed my Mama back into a human, and she had me."

"So who's your father."

She stopped asking that question long ago, "Some old vampire that has a gift of changing back vampires, I honestly don't know, I learned to never ask my mother," they whispered about her Papa's powers, this was not new, his gift was legendary in Mexico since before her mother was turned, it meant he was on the run for all his life.

After she told them this, they had more questions, "I don't see how that makes you evil," Jacob said, defending her, and Benita knew why.

"Renesmee," that was the hybrid girl's name, and the mention of her did have an effect on the Jacob Black, he flexed his arms as her theory grew, "she is your _imprint_ right."

No one told her no, she was beginning to get what that meant, "I get it now, there is a tribe in Nevada that can turn into thunderbirds, they have this courting ritual with the person that they match with, they fly in the sky, and drop her, and if they catch her," Benita had never seen it before, but she heard stories, "it's the same with your tribe too, but I never heard any of them _imprinting_ on hybrids. Shifters don't like vampires, and for good reason."

"Hybrids are rare, this makes mine and Nessie's a special case," Jacob deduced, while the other shapeshifters whispered of the possibilities of tribes all over the world with the power to shift, "you heard a lot of things about other tribes," Jake hinted, "I am guessing you've seen other hybrids, other shifters."

"All stories," she confessed, "nothing much like your special case," Benita did not want to give up all her secrets.

" _Two_ cases," Seth corrected her, meeting her gaze, and then blushing that delicious dark pink.

"There, I get it now," Benita stopped smiling, pointing an accusing finger at Seth, not blaming him, but what this _shifter curse_ had done to them, "ever since I have seen Seth, I can't stop thinking about him, what he wants, what makes him happy, immediately stop doing what doesn't. It's driving me a little crazy if I can explain it," she chuckled, having to show Seth that it was not affecting her as much as she was trying to convey, "so I am going to take a stab at you Jacob," she leaned forward, "your imprint. You feel the same? You think because she is born into a vampire coven, _sorry,_ " she coughed the word, " _family_ , that she will never kill another human, that she will never hunger for blood, you're wrong. One drop of human blood, it's a dangerous thing, it'll change her."

Jacob dug his hand into the arms of her chair, "She can control it."

"That may be true," Benita knew that much, but she held herself accountable for the need to feed, feeling the call still, the room was filled with it, but so was Seth, and she knew that in front of him she would never dare to give into the monster, "but it will still pulls to her, it has power to make us do terrible decisions, to kill, without remorse, and that is what makes us evil. We will want and want more until there is nothing left, and the earth has nothing left to give. My mother is the worst, she wants it all."

Sam came to the front, he had been pulling at his hair moments ago, all her emotions must be driving him up the wall, poor boy, "what do you mean she wants it all."

That was the mission, the reason for all of this, the reason that she tackled Emo Pixie, "Mama wanted me to come and make the Major's life miserable," Benita could start there, "to hurt him in the one way only I can, before the Volturi came, and killed them all," the shifter men growled at that, and Benita did not judge them, she felt the tears coming.

Seth looked at her like she felt, he could never forgive her now, she was not a good person, "I was supposed to take away his mate permanently so he could never be with her again. That he would have no choice but to suck her dry."

One of the wolves spoke up, "Suck Alice dry? How could he do that? Vampires can't do that to each other, I mean they can only tear each other apart, and burn the pieces-" the shifters nodded and went quiet because she was not finished.

"Not Vampires," Benita corrected him, agreeing with his reasoning, "a vampire can only do that to a human."

"But that is impossible, vampires are not human, they can't," Jacob touched his lips, stopping, and finally looking at her, a scary smile forming on his face, he got it before all the rest, Seth was frowning, but it was the Alpha that said, "you turn vampires back into humans?"

It was like he set off a bomb.

All the shifters were talking all at once, and some making excited whoops and yippies like the way her mother had done when she too learned about her gift. As if she was tool in the bigger wars to come.

Jake, Sam, and Seth were the only ones that maintained composure.

Sam spoke up for them all, "is this true? Can you really do it?"

 _What was there to hide now?_ She had done it, told them her deepest secret, the one Ralph and Mama fought hard to protect, and she might not get her forgiveness now, but it felt a hell lot better to get it off her chest, "I can turn vampires back into humans," Benita rubbed her hands, they looked dead compared to their warm tan ones, "but after meeting Seth," she could not read him, he looked frozen, his face for once stoic, had she broken him, "I don't want that life anymore, and the worse part is I failed my mission, and I should have gone back by now, lied to her, bought you some time, but it is too late."

"Too late for what," Jake wanted all the parts.

Benita theorized, "She will know something went wrong, she will come here, and she will see us, and she will not show mercy-"

"She is your mother."

That never mattered before, she hated failure, "She never showed mercy before, she killed her family, she kills her friends, she will do anything to get what she wants," Benita did not want to say it, but she needed to, "even kill me."

Warm arms lifted her from her chair, chasing off the goosebumps that had been on her arms, "She can't get you Benita," Seth held her cheek, he was doing that a lot today, the curse made him do this, and that only made her feel worse, "we won't let anything happen to you."

She was worried about that too, but more when her mother found Seth. There would be no mercy, and too much blood, she knew some of the army would be split when they found out, but most would side with Maria, they had always done so before, "that is why I tried to warn you, we need to leave this place, we have to go far away," she pushed on Seth's arms, not focused on the other shifters, or the fact that she was wearing a flimsy shirt, or the fact that it was colder without his touch, "we need to run."


	16. Chapter 16

**Benita: Loyalty**

 _ **(Landfall in Forks.)**_

Forks.

Benita made it.

Her stolen clothes, a floral spring dress, was inappropriate for the winter weather, but she could care less.

Her mother's plans made her philosophical, _energized._

She remembered, Machiavelli once said, "what benefits the enemy, harms you; and what benefits you, harms the enemy," Benita told her companion, "what a mastermind he was, he would have agreed with Mama's choices, and would probably have made Ralph very suspicious. An interesting yet selfish man, but he still had a point."

Benita had the benefit. The element of surprise.

"Okay, sure, I guess," the vampire was not very interested in her ramble about the Renaissance philosopher, instead fidgeting in his eat, "what does that have to do with anything?"

He was not very bright, she would have to dumb it down for him, "Let's get this over with, Paul, tell me about the Cullens," that was the objective now, "they can't see me coming," the source had informed her in the affirmative, "do I have the green light to go in?"

Paul scratched the dinning table between them, chipping the wood, "Yeah you should be good."

That did not ease her mind, but once she was at the place of execution, she was good with a change of plans. Two, she was gifted half-vampire, she could use her power to her advantage, "I can work this angle, poor lonely hybrid, they will love what I can do, human lovers," she thought aloud, "one of them is a doctor," it seemed silly that a killer would wear sheep's clothing, "pathetic, even for our kind."

The last and most important reason was their sympathies of half-vampires. She knew the Cullens would support her existence because they were fighting the Volturi for the chance of their own _halfie_ to live a life in peace.

"Peace," she cursed the word, "what type of vampires can live in peace with humans, with other vampires, it makes you soft," Benita could not understand it, boring, stagnant, and not possible in the massive amount of war raids that Maria had planned for the coming years. She would have to kill her mother, her _soldados_ , her enemies, and possibly the whole South in order to attain peace. Not to mention the power vacuum that would make for new blood.

Peace seemed like a struggle, war was familiar and safe to Benita, funny how that worked, "been in many wars Paul?"

"Fifteen," he said proudly, "and counting."

"Good, you're one of the lucky ones," Benita told him smirking, "keep doing what your doing I guess."

"I'll try," was his dry response.

 _I will tell Mama to kill him when I get back_ , Benita thought, he won't get another chance for being a smart-ass.

"Hi cutey, be right back, gotta pee," said a girl with a very pretty winter apparel, boots, and a silver bracelet, it glinted off the fluorescent lights as she gave the companion in her booth a wink, going to the restroom, and the hunt sung to Benita.

"I will be right back," the Meixcan hybrid rushed to the restroom with more comfortable apparel.

"Like my funny looking shirt," Benita giggled showing off the moose just to piss off Paul more. Funny the things that go through her head when she is going into foreign territories, alone for once in her life, "soup please," she asked of the waitress wiping the blood off her lips, "one for my friend too, thank you."

"I don't need soup," he did not need it, immortal bastard. She knew it. Her not friend, Paul was not happy with this arrangement, and she would have her fun with him while she waited for someone to see the pretty blood-stained mess she made in the restroom.

"I know, I like pissing you off," she assessed him, and then the freezing Northwestern frontier, and nestled in a corner of a small coffee shop sipping on tea, in a wooly sweater, cotton-furred sweat-bottoms, and stirring her dull red tomato soup she learned how easy it was to make vampires frustrated.

"What the hell are we still doing here, we should have left ages ago," the black sunglasses Paul asks her again, twitching his muscled arms across his ridiculously large chest, "when do I get to go back?"

"When you tell me what you know asshole," she said right back, "what did Benji Boy tell you? What are the potentials?"

His nose flared, "Potentials?"

"Gifted, it means gifted, how can you not know that, did Maria teach you nothing," she wanted to smash her bowl into his face, but the humans around them would no doubt scream their heads off if two vampires slayed it out, heads would go flying for sure, Maria would not be happy, "come on, _cabron_."

"Okay _chola_ ," he pushed his own bowl away, disgusted beyond belief that she had ordered it for him, "you got your Cullens. Male Empath. Female Fortune Teller."

She asked, curious now, "is she Jasper's mate?"

"What?"

"Nevermind," it was best that she kept it professional, "and for their guests," more like their own anti-Volturi army, "what else?"

"Well you already know the one bends the elements, the Irish coven has a lie detector, the Amazons have a magician," Benita could not help but make a face, he expanded, "she makes you see shit."

"What about the Romanians?"

Now it was his turn to look confused, "I never said there were Romanians coming."

"You are not the only person that informs me," she wanted to just leave it like that. Paul Slater of the Los Angeles Coven was her Mama's informer, but that did not mean she did not get one of her own.

"Oh, who do you got," he looked interested, but she was sealed tighter than a stubborn virgin on prom night. No way was he getting that.

"Okay, do you have anything else for me," he did not answer, as she had expected, this was a waste of time, "thanks," she put a tip after swallowing both soups, and was not surprised when he followed. The waitress yelling after them for not paying, but humans get ghosts when they went outside, their pathetic eyes are not fast enough for them.

They blurred two streets down, when Paul spoke up, pushing a door open, "Where are you staying at? What is Maria's plans for you?"

Someone caught the door, and she naturally took to the traffic air of Seattle with a huge sigh, "to the Cullens of course. Wish me luck!"

"Good luck," he did not even mean it, and was gone in the next second.

"Fuck that guy," she says, sighing into the cold mountain air, because now she was really alone on her mission.

It was just for a moment, because someone was waiting in the shadows, "Did he tell you about the mind-reader?"

She rolled her eyes, turning to the alley, "of course he didn't, he wants me to fail, all of Mama's henchman would see me die here. Whatever, I have his head when I get back."

That makes her own vampire laugh, "So they can take your place," Jeremy was very smart, he coiled his camera around his hand, the one he used to capture Maria's enemies in perfect clarity, good thing Benita had been the one to see him born and grow, only the vampires _you turned_ seemed to be loyal these days, "so what's the plan Benita?"

"You are going to hide us in plain sight."

Jeremy smiled, conniving, making her invisible, and him too, "that shouldn't be so hard."

"Don't gloat now, follow me, and when we get close we can finish it," Benita could have cared less if she was thousands of miles from her home, she got a taxi to the Cullen residence, unafraid and ready for the battle to come, "Jasper Whitlock," she growled, "you're mine."


End file.
